MADE: The Museum of Arts and Digital Entertainment. This new video game museum offers classes throughout the week. Check the schedule here: http://www.themade.org/

By no means did I think that list was comprehensive. And sure enough, readers pointed to several others either through comments or email. Note: I have not tried any of these yet. But, here as an additional list with many hat tips to readers to numerous to mention:

Multimedia Fusion: One parent wrote to say their 8-year-old son had taken a camp where they used this to make games. You can download it for free to demo but then you have to pay.

GameMaker(YoYo Games): Got a few notes about this one. FYI: It does not appear to have a free version. You have to pay between $20-$100 depending on which version you want to you.

RPG Maker: The description on the Web site says: “Simple enough for a child; Powerful enough for a developer. Create your own game, with your own story, your own way with the most powerful and easy to use RPG Maker yet.”

Jumula: This one is in beta. But you can download for free and give it a whirl.

Khan Academy: Yep, this site has gotten tons of attention for its educational resources. But apparently it also has programming resources aimed at kids. It may not focus strictly on video games, but it does have some beginner animation tutorials.

I have a little engineer and we’re trying to find things to keep him busy. While this is all way over my head, my husband is a computer god and hopefully he can show the boys how to do this. Thanks for sharing.

Hey Chris, I am starting a intro to video games for kids 101 and was hoping to get some advice from you, have 3 clients so far and its going great, would appreciate if you dropped me a line maybe i can give you some free hours? djpetz4@gmail.com